Glasgow Zen Read online

  fling doon crumbs

  the sparras start fightin –

  ye canny win!

  poor auld bugger

  beggin in the rain

  for a few bob –

  sorry pal, ah’m skint tae

  disnae matter

  how ye look at it –

  ma heid’s cauld

  the full moon shinin

  on this buncha heidbangers

  (me included)

  jist this,

  jist this –

  still …

  RYOKAN

  a wee kickaboot

  wi the kids in the street –

  the light nights

  watchin the weans

  here’s me greetin like

  a big wean masel

  whit a night, eh?

  hey, auld yin!

  ye dancin?

  nights drawin in

  patchin ma auld claes –

  dae me another year

  call it a life?

  where’d it go?

  cauld rain peltin doon

  sat up waitin for ye –

  mind where ah live?

  well then

  cooried up tae the fire

  but ah’m still cauld

  right doon deep inside

  ah’m knackered but

  ah cannae sleep –

  hailstanes batterin doon

  nae beggin the day –

  canny get oot

  for the snaw

  it aw slips away

  lik a drunk dream –

  ach!

  SANTOKA

  it’s pissin doon

  ah’m drookit –

  this is it

  plowtered intae the field

  got hunkered doon

  had a right good shite

  see ma feet?

  still …

  no a bad day

  sun gaun doon:

  a wee dram wid be nice –

  oh aye

  the lang dreich night

  the bark bark bark

  ae that dug

  on ma ain

  seein in the new year –

  wan wee hauf

  this is me –

  nae money nae teeth

  nae nothin

  doon the pawn

  pop ma watch –

  the cauld rain

  scurvy hauns

  red-raw –

  christ, its cauld!

  scratchin maself

  ach aye

  no deid yet

  ORACLE

  There was this time, years ago, I was in London and wondering whether to stay there or come back to Glasgow. Someone suggested I consult an oracle. I-Ching sort of thing. (It was the Sixties!) I thought I would give it a go. But the only book I had to hand was a collection of Japanese haiku – a big thick hardback by RH Blyth, published in Tokyo. So I decided to open the book at random, see if it had anything to tell me.

  I closed my eyes, opened the book. And when I looked at the page, this is what I read:

  This is the bell that never rang

  This is the fish that never swam

  This is the tree that never grew

  This is the bird that never flew

  In a book of Japanese haiku. Published

  in Tokyo. And the footnote just said

  Jingle on Glasgow City coat of arms.

  So I came back to Glasgow.

  GLASGOW ZEN (2)

  On man’s anti-entropic function in the universe

  A WEE BIT ORDER THERE,

  GENTS

  On the music of what happens

  ONE SINGER

  ONE SONG

  On truth being self-evident and sufficient unto itself

  RIGHT

  ENOUGH

  On walking the pathless path

  BY

  THE WAY

  On the sound of one hand clapping

  WHEESHT!

  CODA

  and this too

  will pass

  and this

  and this

  and this

  and this

  and this too

  will pass

  and this too

  and this too

  and this too

  and this too

  will pass

  will pass

  and this too

  will pass

  and this too

  and this too

  and this too

  will pass

  and this too

  (and this too)

  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

  Some of these poems first appeared in a pamphlet, Glasgow Zen, published by the Print Studio Press, and in a performance piece, also called Glasgow Zen, commissioned by the Traverse Theatre. Others have been published and broadcast in the following:

  Atoms of Delight (Pocketbooks), Back to the Light (Mariscat), Best of Scottish Poetry (Chambers), Botanical Basho (Botanic Gardens Press), Noise and Smoky Breath (Third Eye Centre), The Scotsman, Words, Writers in Brief (Book Trust), Spectrum (BBC TV) and Sound Poetry (BBC Radio Scotland).

  About the Author

  GLASGOW ZEN

  ALAN SPENCE is an award-winning novelist, playwright, short story writer and poet. Awards include the People’s Prize, Macallan Scotland on Sunday Prize, McVitie Prize for Scottish Writer of the Year and various Scottish Arts Council awards, including one for his most recent collection of Haiku, Seasons of the Heart (Canongate 2000).

  Glasgow-born, he is based in Edinburgh and is currently Professor in Creative Writing at the University of Aberdeen.

  Also by Alan Spence

  FICTION

  Its Colours they are Fine

  The Magic Flute

  Stone Garden

  Way to Go

  POETRY

  ah!

  Seasons of the Heart

  PLAYS

  Sailmaker

  Space Invaders

  Changed Days

  The Banyan Tree

  On the Line

  Copyright

  First published in Great Britain in 2002 by

  Canongate Books Ltd, 14 High Street,

  Edinburgh, EH1 1TE

  This digital edition first published in 2009

  by Canongate Books

  Copyright © Alan Spence, 2002

  The moral rights of the author have been asserted

  ‘Glasgow’s Full of Poets’ by Alan Jackson is from

  All Fall Down, Kelvin Press, 1965

  The publishers gratefully acknowledge general subsidy from the Scottish Arts Council towards the publication of this volume

  British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

  A catalogue record for this book is available on request from the British Library

  ISBN 978 1 84767 737 2

  www.meetatthegate.com